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Kinyon Digital Library

History of Adair
County, Iowa, 1915.

Biographical.  Volume 2.

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Aaron S. Lynn.

Aaron S. Lynn, engaged in farming on section 9, Union township, is regarded as one of the representative citizens of Adair county.  He was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, October 3, 1848, a son of William J. and Caroline (Schrock) Lynn, both of whom were natives of the Keystone state.  In 1869 they came to Iowa, settling in Clarke county, where they lived until called to their final rest.  The father followed the occupation of farming.

Aaron S. Lynn was reared upon the old homestead farm in Pennsylvania and acquired his education there in the public schools and under private tutors.  He came with his parents to Iowa and on attaining his majority began farming on his own account, renting land in Clarke county.  His marriage was celebrated in that county in 1871, when Miss Mary E. Young became his wife.  She is a daughter of John S. Young, who removed from Indiana to Iowa during the pioneer epoch in the history of this state.  Two years after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Lynn removed to Adair county, where he purchased eighty acres of his present home farm.  He took up his abode upon this place and has made it his home for forty-two consecutive years, adding to his first modest purchase from time to time until his holdings aggregated seven hundred and twenty acres.  In later years, however, he has deeded a portion of this land to his children.  His farming interests have been carried on along progressive lines.  He has studied the condition of the soil, the needs of various cereals, and has made a close study as well of questions relative to stock-raising.  While he has been primarily a farmer, he has also been a railroad builder and in that way has contributed much to the material development of the part of the state in which he lives.  He has always been a prominent factor in the support of higher education and the foremost man in church work in his district.  In every sense he has been a constructive citizen, working for development and improvement, and his labors have been far-reaching and beneficial.  He was the prime factor in the building of the Creston, Winterset & Des Moines Railroad, extending from Creston to Macksburg, Iowa.  It was he who organized the company, sold the majority of the stock and when the active work of construction began he was the man at the helm with less than one hundred dollars in the treasury when they had expected collections of one hundred thousand dollars of more.  Eleven subcontractors with eleven camps on the twenty-two miles of road were put to work to rush construction and it was Mr. Lynn who furnished the finances to complete the building of the road.  Many of the financial problems solved by him would have taxed the ability of some of the ablest financiers of the country, but the project was successfully carried through and the completed road has been of untold value to the district.  It was he who organized the Mutual Telephone Company in his township and brought about the building of the telephone system.  It was Mr. Lynn who made possible the building of the handsome Christian church at Zion and for the past twenty years he has been a member of the board of regents of Palmer College at Albany, Missouri, a sectarian college conducted under the auspices of the Christian church.  Some time since, when the college was in need of more funds, Mr. Lynn was chosen to go to New York to relieve the situation, and he returned with an endowment of fifty thousand dollars.  He was a member of the National Board of Church Missions for four years and he has been not only a most generous contributor but a most helpful factor in all lines of church work.  In his political views he is a republican, thoroughly informed concerning the questions and issues of the day, but has never been an aspirant for public office.

To Mr. and Mrs. Lynn have been born six children:  C. Victoria:  Harlan H., who is engaged in the lumber business in Delta, Iowa;  Flora L., the wife of I. J. Dalbey, of Kellerton, Iowa, who is owner of a number of lumberyards at different points along the railroad;  Corda M., the wife of J. E. Bowen, a farmer of Union township;  Ethel, the wife of H. H. Linton, superintendent of the schools at Newell, Iowa;  and Lloyd L., who is a farmer of Union township.  The eldest daughter C. Victoria, is a graduate of Highland Park College and has pursued post-graduate work in New York and Boston.  She began teaching when but sixteen years of age and subsequently was associated with normal and college work.  Later she took up chautauqua work and is today recognized as one of the foremost readers on the circuit.  She has also read before many prominent women's clubs of the country and has given the highest satisfaction wherever she has been heard.  She has an attractive personality, a pleasing voice and, more than that, she has been a close student of the best literature, giving to her audiences that which is most worthwhile.  Mr. and Mrs. Lynn have reason to be proud of the success which the different members of their family have made in their chosen vocations.  Moreover, they have been proud to follow in the footsteps of their father, who has set them an excellent example of time and talent well used.  From a humble financial position he has steadily worked his way upward and his strongly marked characteristics have brought to him the success which is now his.  It is now his material gains, however, which have placed him so high in public regard, but the spirit which he has manifested in his relations to those things which are vital to the community, the state and the nation.

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